On September 24, the Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Vyacheslav Volodin, announced in his Telegram channel that deputies have begun considering a bill "prohibiting the propaganda of deliberate refusal to have children."
According to him, the bill proposes to ban "childfree propaganda" on the internet, in media, films, and advertising.
For violating the ban, it is proposed to introduce administrative fines "similar to those that were adopted with your support earlier for LGBT propaganda and gender reassignment," Volodin said.
According to the State Duma Speaker, the bill suggests fines of up to 400,000 rubles for individuals, up to 800,000 rubles for officials, and up to five million rubles for legal entities.
The text of the bill is not yet available. Two bills from 2022 and 2023 that mentioned the ban on "childfree propaganda" have not changed. However, Russian deputies regularly conduct their legislative initiatives by adding amendments to other bills that are already under consideration by the parliament.
- The ban on "childfree propaganda" in Russia has been discussed since 2022, when a bill was introduced to the State Duma proposing to prohibit the distribution of information promoting voluntary refusal to have children among minors. The bill was not adopted at that time.
- This issue was revisited in September 2024. On September 18, the Speaker of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, stated that she supports banning the "childfree movement," and on September 23, as reported by Russian media, the government "conceptually supported" the bill.